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In an interview, ISDA CEO Robert Pickel discussed past events, including a credit-event auction on Greece's sovereign debt and the association's legal action against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regarding position limits. ISDA prefers dialogue and consultation rather than litigation, Pickel said, but the position-limit rule was a unique situation. "This is not an indication of a new path, but we will scrutinize each of these rules," he said.

The position-limits rule the Commodity Futures Trading Commission reintroduced this week affects 19 agricultural contracts, four energy contracts and five metals contracts for spot-month and nonspot-month position limits. The CFTC is confident that this iteration of the rule will stand up to any legal challenges, with Commissioner Bart Chilton saying the proposal "should be unassailable in court."

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's proposed position-limit rule might be more lenient than originally thought. There was concern that, if accepted, the rule would restrict the number of contracts a firm can hold in certain commodities. However, in a review of CME Group's existing rules, the CFTC's proposal might actually raise limits.

A recent credit default swaps auction of contracts covering Greece's debt was successful, but trading in Greek CDS has remained on hold because of a contractual technicality. The situation has hurt the ability of market makers to manage risk. Traders are awaiting a ruling from ISDA on whether look-back clauses, which are typical in CDS contracts, can be used to reference the March 9 credit-event decision.

The CME Group has asked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to allow it to increase grain position limits. A draft of the regulator's final position-limits rule says "the Commission has determined to adopt the position limit levels proposed by the CME Group."